


A Day of Fairies

by PhantomPhan16, VicenteValtieri



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 15:00:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12213231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomPhan16/pseuds/PhantomPhan16, https://archiveofourown.org/users/VicenteValtieri/pseuds/VicenteValtieri
Summary: Grand Admiral Thrawn spends a day of leave in the forest of Diran and finds that art of fairies may not be so mythical as he thought.





	A Day of Fairies

Grand Admiral Thrawn walked through a forest on Diran during leave. The art of this world showed the people were absolutely fascinated by the idea of fairies and magic.

 

Ridiculous as the beliefs of the natives were, he couldn’t help but see how they formed this belief. The forest was truly beautiful and dotted with flowers.

 

He was drawn to a massive, grand oak with a huge, winding trunk, obviously the home of many animals, and mushrooms running up and along the ground around it.

 

He stroked one of the mushrooms on the trunk, humming softly to himself.

 

Something flew past him. A butterfly? Suddenly a bat streaked by after it.

 

That was odd. Bats didn’t usually fly by day.

 

This one must be either starving or sick. The butterfly collided with his chest.

 

He brushed it off gently and caught the bat with his gloved hand, examining it. Poor thing.

 

He lifted it close, and the butterfly came back to his face. He found himself wondering if he had eaten a wild mushroom and could no longer remember doing so. What was fluttering in front of his face was not a butterfly. It was... a fairy. She had caramel skin, dark brown curls, and blue butterfly wings.

 

“…Hello?”

 

"Rude! You ruined our game, blue human!" she snapped at him.

 

“Game? If you call teasing a starving bat a game, then yes, I ruined it and I’m GLAD I ruined it.”

 

"What? Mokie isn't starving. We were playing tag, you big jerk! He was raised by us so he'll come out during the day and night at odd times."

 

“Mokie?” He looked down at the bat and stroked it’s furred and plump little body. It didn’t feel like it was starving.

 

"Yes, Mokie. He was raised by fairies after he was orphaned by a fire."

"...Are the mushrooms on this planet hallucinogenic?"

 

"Maybe some are to humans, but this is real." "Fairies can't be real." "I should shrink you for that just so I can prove you wrong and show you."

"Do it, I dare you."

 

"Okay." Sparkling purple light swirled around him from her hands, and he did indeed shrink down to just a little taller than she was. The bat was now on the ground and giggled. Giggled?! "Now he can talk to me too! He's nice, Nia." The bat sounded like a... child.

 

“…Now I know I’m on mushrooms.”

 

"No, I just let your understand the animals like we can. So, my name's Nia, what's yours?"

 

“Carnelian must have slipped me something for a joke…” He muttered. “I’m Grand Admiral Thrawn.”

 

"Pleased to meet you. Mokie, mind giving our new friend a lift home?" "Okay!" He scuttled over to Thrawn. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

 

“All right… Mokie. I’m sure when I wake up you’ll be a TIE, but okay.” He climbed onto the bat’s back.

 

"What's that? It's a bat big enough for you to ride when you are big?" "No. It's something we build that flies and we used to protect ourselves."

 

“Oh. A metal bat.”

 

"Yes, I suppose it could be called that." Mokie took off and followed Nia up into the thick branches of the oak. There were tiny homes and fairies with butterfly, dragonfly, bee, wasp, horent, and all kinds of bird wings. "Nia! You've brought a stranger?" An older man dressed rather regally with a crown of golden leaves on his head, approached. "Not only could he see me as me and not a butterfly, Father, but he could hear me as well. His mind is open."

 

“…There’s a fairy king with a crown of golden leaves. I’m so high right now.”

 

"I assure you that you are perfectly sober, friend. Our sentries watched you enter this forest, you consumed nothing." "I'm not high?" "No." "Or dunk?" "No."

 

“…You realize that’s exactly what I would tell me if I wanted to convince myself I wasn’t high and then I would proceed to attempt to prove to myself that…. This sentence is confusing. I give up. So, I’m not high?”

 

"No, Thrawn," Nia said.

 

“All right. While I’m still in shock, I would suggest giving me a tour.”

 

"Come on." "Nia, I would start with the kitchens and get him a tonic to calm him." "Yes, Father." Thrawn slid off Mokie onto the branch, now more than wide enough to hold him as well as several fairy homes.

 

He stared all around as they descended into the trunk of the tree.

 

It was a palace inside, and Nia let him to a kitchen worked and protected by fairy magic to keep the fire of the stove from harming the tree. She handed him a small, wooden goblet of purple juice. "Here, it's berry juice. Just something to helps calm nerves a little."

 

Thrawn knocked it back and stared around the kitchen again. “Holy Force. This is real, isn’t it?”

 

"It's real," Nia smiled, her green eyes sparkling with laughter.

 

“Wow…” Thrawn murmured.

 

"Come on. How about that tour?"

"Sure. Show me everything."

 

Nia led him back out and along the branches like she was leading him along a street. The oak branches interlocked and crossed even up and down allowing a levels of the village, and smaller, movable branches were pulled and fastened together to create an area to gather and for children to play. They had tailors, weavers, bakers, blacksmiths, occupations Thrawn would never expect them to have.

"This is amazing. But I thought fairies hated iron?"

 

"We do which is why we use other metals, steel, silver, titanium when we can find it."

"How is the tree still alive around us? The whole center is hollow."

 

Nia touched the bark reverently. "The Grand Oak is very old, the oldest tree in the forest. Time and age hollowed some, animals hollowed more, and when the first fairies came long ago we provided the Grand Oak with Earth Magic. Wood still remains and life still flows through it, but if we were to leave it the tree would die. It protects us, houses us, and so we protect it in return and help it live."

"...Oh." Thrawn reached out and touched it as well.

 

He followed her up a branch with ladders tied to it to the section lashed together. Several children came rushing. "Nia!" "Who's the stranger, Nia?" "He's blue!" "Why does he have red eyes?" "Is he gonna live here now?" Thrawn didn't know where to look or what to do until a pair of tiny hands tugged his sleeve. He looked down to see a little girl gazed up with with the biggest purple eyes, and he thought he was going to melt as she shyly toyed with her foot and sucked her fingers as he knelt to hear her. "Um,... I think your eyes are pretty," she mumbled shyly.

"Thank you." He smiled and reached out to shake her hand. "You're very pretty too."

 

She giggled and hugged his leg. Nia laughed. "Looks like Sophie's claimed you as her new best friend," she grinned.

"Sophie? A nice name."

 

"Thank you." Nia smiled and bent down. "Sophie, Thrawn needs his leg, sweetie. He can't fly like we can he has to walk." "Oh." She let go and stepped back.

Thrawn laughed. "Thank you."

 

"You're welcome. Okay, guys, lets show Thrawn how we have fun." "Tag!" "No, he can't fly that's not fair, Jonas." "Oh yeah." "Lets play Berry Ball!" "Yeah!" "Berry ball?" Nia smiled. "Berry Ball is where a berry is picked and must be passed between plays down two rows. You must use your upper body to pass it without actually grabbing and throwing it. The round is over when the berry breaks, and if it breaks on your turn or just ON your, you're out. The games until one person is left or parents call the children home."

"That sounds fun. Let's try it."

 

"Okay. Jonas, Crystal, find a good bunch of berries." "Okay, Nia!" The two children flew off as Nia then divided everyone by giving then a number 1 or 2 one after another until they were all lines up. There were ten of them total, twelve when Jonas and Crystal returned with several berries. Thrawn and Nia were at the end of the two rows so Thrawn could see how the game worked.

He watched carefully as they began playing.

 

The children bounced the berry using their heads, bumping it up with their chests, or with hitting it with their arms or hands, but they never actually held it or grabbed it.

The berry reached Thrawn and he elbowed it to Nia.

 

She hit it back to him like a volleyball player would bump a ball.

He knocked it with his head to the next child.

 

It went down two more then broke on little Sophie. He almost expected her to cry, but she giggled and skipped down the line a handed Jonas the next berry.

Jonas started it out with a head butt and the game went on.

 

This time Thrawn would hit it last, and as it came into contact with his elbow it broke over him, splattering him.

He winced and found himself giggling at the sticky fluid. "So, I'm out?"

 

They went a few more rounds before Nia was out and the children were called home by their parents.

"That was fun. Is there somewhere we can wash?"

 

"Back at the palace. Come on." He followed the fairy princess, still amazed this was real, back to the palace inside the tree.

The palace washtub was a scallop shell.

 

"So what's a military man doing in the forest?" Nia asked after they were clean.

"I was exploring. It's a beautiful forest."

 

"I've never seen someone like you before." "I am not native to this world. I am a Chiss, from a world far, far from here."

"Oh. What's it like there?"

 

"Cold. My homeworld was a glacier, always winter, below freezing. I never saw grass until I left."

"I can't imagine that."

 

"I never guessed the galaxy beyond held such beauty as well as such ugliness and capability for destruction. The worlds I have seen are vast and diverse, beautiful and serene, ugly and violent unto itself, and plain and dull. This world itself is diverse with beautiful forests, vast lakes and oceans, grassy plains, and dry desert sands."

"I haven't ever been beyond the forest."

 

"Why not?" "Most humans see us as the animals our wings match. Before fairies would leave the forest, but humans began catching them, especially ones like me, pinning them up and horrible things like that. The humans who did see us for fairies would catch us and experiment on us. Finally the kings forbid us from leaving the safety of the forest, and interaction with humans is not well received due to the danger."

 

"Yes, but you seem a good sort."

"I like to think I am."

 

Nia smiled at him. "I think you are, too. Come, we should get you do so I can return you to normal. I'm sure people are wondering where you are."

"So am I. Thank you, for this."

 

"You're welcome, and you are welcome here should you need or wish to return.

"Thank you. I will come back someday."

 

Mokie flew Thrawn down to the grass, and Nia returned him to his normal size.

"Good-bye." Thrawn smiled at the bat and fairy.

 

Nia waved then flew off with Mokie.

As Thrawn left the forest, he felt a breath of wind through the trees and realized he would never see it the same way.


End file.
